6 The Bulletin. 



• 



any underground insects which might attack the roots. If the ground 

 is thus carefully worked and kept bare for a few weeks previous to 

 planting many 'Cut-worms will be starved or driven out. The extra 

 stimulus given to the plant by all this careful working enables it to 

 resist or recover from the attacks of Cut-worms, Lice, Koot-lice and 

 Cowpea-pod Weevils. 



Varieties. — North Carolina is the most northern of the large cot- 

 ton-producing States, and as cotton is essentially a plant of warm 

 countries, our seasons are sometimes a little shorter than is best for 

 this crop, and makes it necessary for us to use early-maturing varieties 

 which will make a crop before frost. The need of early varieties is 

 still more evident when we remember that some insect pests are most 

 destructive in the latter part of the season, for by that time an early 

 variety may have its crop made, while the later-maturing variety 

 may fall prey to the insects. The use of the very earliest varieties 

 is advisable as a means of counteracting the Boll-worm, also to a 

 lesser extent it is effective against the Bed Spider, and in the States 

 infested by Boll-weevil it is one of the principal means of escaping 

 the ravages of that pest. 



Time Of Planting. — In respect to the time of planting we have 

 to take our chances with certain pests no matter whether we plant 

 early or late. Early planting tends to avoid damage by the Boll- 

 worm, because it enables the crop to be made before that insect 

 reaches its greatest abundance in the fall. On the other hand late 

 planting helps to escape Cut-worms, Cowpea-pod Weevil, Root- 

 louse and Le'df-louse and Lice, as these are all worse early in the 

 season. 



Since the shortness of our season has to be considered we believe 

 the balance to be in favor of reasonably early planting, and especially 

 is this the case in the more northern and western of our cotton 

 counties, as in Rutherford, Catawba, Alexander, Davie, Granville and 

 Warren. Some growers in these sections complain that the shortness 

 of the season is their main difficulty and in such cases it is idle to 

 delay planting after the conditions are once fit. But in the warmer 

 counties like Mecklenburg, Union and Anson, where the season is 

 suitably long, and where Cut-worms are regularly serious, it is cer- 

 tainly worth while to consider the advisability of later planting, 

 especially when the cotton must follow directly after a crop of grass 

 or weeds. 



Planting ExceSS Of Seed. — Injury "by some insects, such as Cut- 

 worms, Lice and Cowpea-pod Weevil, may be lessened by planting an 

 increased quantity of seed so that there shall be enough plants to 

 secure a stand even if some are destroyed by insects. If injury by 

 these continues regularly after the cotton is chopped, it may be advis- 

 able to chop to a thicker stand, so as to allow for some being killed 

 later. Any surplus can be gotten rid of if necessary by thinning 



